rumitoid, Have you ever considered the possibility that the Penitentes are not really Catholics at heart, but are actually "Conversos," - descended from the increasing numbers of Hispanic Americans along the US-Mexico border who are coming out of the shadows to declare themselves descendants of Conversos, or crypto-Jews, who fled the Spanish Inquisition five centuries ago:

On Dec. 8, 1596, Luis de Carvjal the Younger, his mother, Doña Francisca, and his sisters Leonor, Isabel, and Catalina, were burned at the stake in Mexico City after being tried in court by the Inquisition. Their crime was practicing Judaism in secret. This was no small matter. De Carvajal’s uncle, who was known as “el Conquistador,” was the governor of the New Kingdom of León, in northern Mexico. They were a family of Conversos, Jews who took great pains to hide their true heritage and religious convictions from the authorities, presenting themselves as practicing Catholics. But, in private, they remained faithful to Judaism.

Genealogist Dennis Maes says that a good 80 percent of the genealogies he’s done for Hispanic families in New Mexico can be traced back to de Carvajal. Some of those who rediscover their Ashkenazi (Eastern European-Jewish) and Sephardic (Spanish-Jewish) heritage have returned to the faith of their ancestors, facing the condemnation of their Catholic communities and families. They do so as a matter of conviction. If their ancestors could endure the trials of the Inquisition, which included torture, and persist in their beliefs, they could honor that legacy by converting.

"Blanca Carrasco, 52, an administrator at the University of Texas at El Paso, remembers hearing her uncles complain that her great-grandmother “was going to start speaking Ladino again so they wouldn’t understand.” A little girl at the time in a Catholic family near the border, she had no idea what Ladino was, or that it was connected to Judaism.

…Another El Pasoan, Yolanda Chavarria-Radcliffe, a 52-year old designer, said she heard her parents and grandparents say a few times, “We were once Jews.”

“It never really meant much to me when I was a little girl,” she said in a recent interview. “But as time went on, I was never satisfied with Catholicism or Christianity. Then, when I learned about the history of crypto-Jews, I began investigating my family ancestry and discovered that Chavarria and other family names stretching back centuries — Juarez, Orrantia, Aguirre, Enriquez — are well-known Converso names.”

The same was true for Carrasco. “It turns out my surname was very popular in Converso circles. And so were the names of other ancestors — Espinoza, Perez, and Enriquez.”

…Today, descendants of Jews who were expelled from Spain have tangible incentive to examine the roots of their family trees: Citizenship is now being offered in Spain and Portugal for a limited time, for those who fit the countries’ legal criteria, and in a sense, to atone for the past.

According to scholars, crypto-Jews converted to Catholicism under threat of death during the Spanish Inquisition, but secretly remained practicing Jews. To escape suspicion and persecution at home, they disproportionately settled in far-flung parts of the Spanish empire such as the Caribbean and Mexico. By the 16th and 17th century, many of these so-called “Conversos” had migrated into the Rio Grande valley, all the way up through modern-day New Mexico.

Five hours north of El Paso, through the New Mexican desert, is Albuquerque, home to Dr. Sarah Koplik, director of community outreach at the Jewish Federation of New Mexico.

Koplik oversees a program that looks at genealogies to determine whether someone has Sephardi heritage. Those with Converso roots can obtain a certificate from Koplik that can be used to apply for Spanish citizenship under a 2015 program by Spain’s government offering citizenship to anybody with a Sephardi background and language proficiency.

“Applicants can be from anywhere in the world and must show some evidence of Sephardi roots,” she says. “We issue certificates authenticating Sephardi heritage by investigating surnames and family backgrounds. They can then take these documents to Spain and pass an exam to become Spanish citizens.” (Portugal does not require language proficiency.)

Koplik estimates that 300,000 to 400,000 Hispanics in New Mexico today have Converso roots.

“We’ve documented that about one-quarter of the 80 initial settler families in New Mexico were Conversos. Based on genealogy and excellent record keeping, we know that 30 to 40 percent of the one million New Mexican Hispanics today have at least once crypto-Jewish ancestor,” she says."

“Oñate was calling for colonialists to go north and settle New Mexico,” Artenstein says. “[Author and historian] Ron Hart’s theory — and it makes sense when you look at the genealogies of Northern New Mexicans — is that a lot of Converso families in Mexico probably thought, if the governor’s family can’t be protected, what about us? I’ve interviewed a lot of Converso Jews that descended from families that came up with Oñate.”

Now, back to the Penitentes: The supposed Catholic Penitentes are a great mystery in that for 400 years, Los Hermanos Penitentes have been serving the people of rural northern New Mexico -- taking care of widows, helping to bring in the harvest, and offering comfort to those mourning the dead.

However, the group also known as the Penitente Brotherhood has not always been treated well. The secretive society, often made up of generations of males from the same family tree, has developed a deep mistrust of outsiders over the past half-century, as stories swirled in the press about the brothers' ritual mortification practices during Holy Week, the Hermanos retreated from the outside world.

Although the lay brothers are deeply spiritual, they have not always been embraced by the Catholic Church. The church pulled its priests out of New Mexico following Mexico's independence in 1821. In the decades that followed, the Penitentes stepped in to keep the faith alive. Like other penitent groups, the Hermanos have been known to practice self-flagellation and other types of physical punishments as a penance for their sins.

Unlike the very public penances conducted in other parts of the world, such as the crucifixions that occur every year in the Philippines, the brotherhood in New Mexico gathers inside small, windowless buildings, called moradas. Modeled after the kiva meeting chambers of the Native American tribes who previously inhabited the region, the moradas are sacred spaces where the men of the community meet to conduct religious rituals.

Since secrecy is a priority for this group, it was especially hard for the Hermanos when outsiders began asking questions about their traditions.

During the Great Depression, the Federal Writers' Project, a New Deal program intended to bolster the economy, sent thousands of men and women into rural parts of America to pen "snapshots" of local cultures and folklore.

Sandoval traces much of the group's current "paranoia" to fallout from that time. He claims men who came to the valley during that time reportedly infiltrated the brotherhood's meetings, only to leave and write sensationalistic articles about their sacred practices.

"A lot of the brothers were very paranoid," according to Sandoval. "And to a degree, they were right, because people were writing about them, not understanding that some questions can't be answered due to the sacredness of it."

During Holy Week, the most important part of the year, at certain times during the next few days, the doors of the morada will close and the brothers will retreat inside to take part in their secret, sacred rituals. The Santuario de Chimayo is a Roman Catholic church in Chimayo, New Mexico, built by Spanish missionaries in 1816. It is an important sacred place for the Penitentes in the region.

Sandoval said that the Penitentes' brand of spirituality has taught him much about suffering. Sandoval joined the brotherhood when he was just 11 years old. For most of his adult life, he has worked in health care, taking care of people who are experiencing intense periods of suffering. He's seen people at their most vulnerable -- sick, dying, dealing with mental illness or addiction. For him, Holy Week and the accompanying rituals are cleansing. They recharge and refresh him so he can maintain the positive energy he needs to bring healing to his community...

"When you come from a modern society and a modern way of thinking, stepping into the morada is going back 200 or 300 years in time," Sandoval said. "You have to have faith that there's value in the ancient and old ways."

So, does this Secretive Penitente Brotherhood Of New Mexico not sound as if they could be from the same roots as the secretive Conversos who do not in fact accept Jesus' sacrifice on their behave, but feel compelled to annually create their own sacrifice of suffering?